Building MBK

Today Building MBK meant using the Look & Feel Selector - one of the tools offered by SBI! - to modify the look of my site. I no longer wanted my site to be enclosed on both sides by the background images of the navbar and the 3rd column. I wanted to lighten my site and to use all the viewing area.

Two options are available when using the Look & Feel Selector, predesigned themes and custom using additional themes or creating new images with our own graphics program or with SBI! built-in tools. First, I selected one of the predesigned themes and then, with the help of Julie from Kansas City, Missouri and Jacki from Grand Forks, British Columbia, I was able to crop part of my logo image and to save it as my top image.

Now I'd like to have the navbar texts aligned to the left. Since I didn't know how to do it, I sent another post to the Forums and was informed by David, a SBIer from London, England, that in theory it's easy, but in practice... and if you wait for Blockbuilder 2 you'll find that left-alignment of the navbar texts is an option (and perhaps even the default option). More on Building MBK and on Blockbuilder 2 when it's ready. RLB

What I must do now is search for profitable keywords using Brainstorm It! I need keywords related to population, dwelling, language, religion, immigrant, education and income. I will then integrate the newly found profitable keywords into the pages already built and I will create new pages. My goal is to have a minimum of 10 pages on each borough, each district and each city located on the island of Montreal. RLB

January 27, 2012

SBI! is a 10 DAY process which is an easy way to divide the C>T>P>M (Content > Traffic > PREsell > Monetize) concept into do-able steps.

On the Net, it's the "information" online strategy that prevails over the "location" offline strategy. The idea behind the C-Content is, therefore, to provide the information that people are searching for and to create high-value Content based on Keywords.

Keywords are the topic of a Web site or a Web page. They also are the terms surfers enter into search engines when looking for something. Needless to say that Keywords and Content are closely related.

Consequently, SBI! offers a tool called Brainstorm It! that contains, among other things, a "Seed Generator" and a "Vertical Brainstorming". The first returns a list of potential Site Concept Keywords and the second generates keywords that contain the Seed Word.

Both supply valuable lists of keywords and both enable us to lay out the "Content Blueprint" of our site. RLB

January 16, 2012

In 2006, six years ago, I learned about Site Build It! and decided to join in. At the time my goal was to explain our cultural differences and my site was to be called Montreal Culture Kit.

Cultural mistakes can easily cost business opportunities and/or clients. Consequently, it is rather important that SMEs who export their goods and services to foreign countries become familiar with cultural differences.

Then I felt I would rather talk about business in Montreal and called my site Montreal Business Kit. My site was going to include information on the major advantages of doing business in Montreal, on our facilities and, of course, on our business culture.

I could have stopped right there and start working, but I didn't, something was missing. I strongly feel that absolutely everything about Montreal is interesting and worth describing.

The conclusion that eventually came to my mind is that I should build an island, the island of Montreal and describe its city, its 19 boroughs and its 15 reconstituted cities. This is the first step. The second step consists of adding content on the many aspects of Montreal and, at the third step, I'll ask Montrealers from all over the world to join in and share THEIR Montreal. I look forward to this third step. As for the fourth, fifth, six and so on step, follow me and I'll tell you all about Building MBK now that I'm retired. RLB

Thank you for visiting Building MBK.
More to come soon.

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